“Yes.” The word escaped before he’d even finished the question.
In the space of a heartbeat, the distance between them vanished. Felix touched beneath August’s chin and tipped his head gently back, halting just short of kissing him. His lipswere so achingly close, and his stare was heavy enough to crush August into dust.
The pounding of his heart was a violent thing, threatening to crack through his ribcage, and August flinched at the force of it.
“You’re not sure,” Felix said, barely a whisper.
It took a moment for August to find his voice. “I’m never sure about anything.”
A pause, and then Felix’s hand fell away. “I can wait until you are.” He lingered close for a long moment, then pulled back, letting the space settle between them.
Left with the echo of Felix’s touch on his chin and a yearning to have it back, August watched in stunned silence as he circled the bar, filled two glasses with something clear, and carried them back to the bay window with his usual ease.
“Tonight,” Felix said, holding one up toward August, “I’m content to have a drink and a chat.”
It took another handful of breaths before August’s thoughts were coherent enough to accept the offer. He perched beside Felix, clutching the glass, but he didn’t drink it.
Felix sipped his own slowly, looking lost in his thoughts as August replayed the almost-kiss in his head until he felt dizzy.
“Wait,” August said, the realization hitting him suddenly. “You spoke inside my head.”
“I did, yeah.”
“How?”
“Telepathic communication,” Felix answered.
August’s tutors never mentioned that ability. “Can all listeners do that?”
“I think so. It’s not really mentioned in the textbooks, but the few listeners I’ve met could do it. One from a distance, even.”
“I don’t like it,” August said. “Maybe we should stick with regular talking.”
Felix’s mouth tipped up. “Alright. Mouth speaking only.” He finished his drink, then asked, “Does anyone else know what you can do?”
August let out a short, humorless laugh, the sobering weight of yesterday’s events fracturing his blissful daze. “Yeah. Everyone, now.”
“I mean before all that.”
He was asking about the aesran, August knew. He wanted to know if she had broken her own laws.
“My mother takes nothing I say seriously,” August answered. “When I realized these people weren’t actually there, that I was the only one who could see them, I tried to tell her, but she refused to see it as anything more than make-believe. My father believed me, but he wasn’t really sure how to help. I think it made him uncomfortable to talk about it. He’d always change the subject. I think, on some level, he was afraid of me.”
Felix set his empty glass on the floor. “And your sister?”
“Lottie knows about the anchored. Not the other thing.” He finally took a sip of his drink and winced at the awful taste, then set it on the floor beside Felix’s, still full. “She used to push me to talk to them.”
“What do you talk to anchored about?”
August smiled at the memory that popped into his head. “There was this one time she convinced me to sneak into the castle’s armoury. She wanted a sword to practice with, and our mother refused, so she went and got it herself.”
“They didn’t want her to learn to fight?”
“Well, she was seven,” August said with a shrug. “But there was a soldier there, and he stayed with us, giving Lottie tips on sword fighting through me.”
He couldn’t remember the soldier’s name now. He’d stopped showing up after a few months, and August hoped that meanthe had untethered himself and moved on to whatever it was that came next.
Lottie had been heartbroken, and he remembered thinking it was silly to grieve someone who had been dead for years.
